COLOMBO: Prominent Maldivian blogger Yameen Rasheed was stabbed to death in Male on Sunday, his relatives and colleagues said.

Early on Sunday, the dissident blogger was found in the stairwell of his apartment, with multiple stab wounds in his neck and chest. He succumbed to his injuries and died soon after being taken to hospital, according to news reports.

Describing himself “disobedient writer” in his twitter profile Mr. Rasheed, 29, maintained a blog titled ‘The Daily Panic’, which was popular among Maldivians for its satire and critical commentary on political developments in the Indian Ocean island.

Following Mr. Rasheed’s suspected killing on Sunday, the opposition has demanded an international probe. “A brave voice, brutally silenced. Only an impartial & open investigation with international participation can provide justice for @yaamyn,” former president and exiled opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed tweeted. His Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) in a statement called for “full international participation” in the investigation of the case.

The attack on the young blogger comes at a politically turbulent time in Male, following the opposition’s unsuccessful bid to impeach the speaker of parliament.

Mr. Rasheed is the third media personality to be targeted in the Maldives in the past five years. Ahmed Rilwan, a journalist with Minivan News, was likely abducted in August 2014 and has been missing since, and another blogger Ismail Rasheed or Hilath, was stabbed and wounded by an unidentified person in 2012, news agency AFP reported. Mr. Rasheed himself relentlessly raised questions over impunity and justice in the case of his disappeared friend and journalist Mr. Rilwan